Blonde Hair Gene Identified: Page 2

While the future of mankind is unknowable, illustrator Nickolay Lamm (NickolayLamm.com) has produced a set of imaginative evolutionary changes to the human face over the next 100,000 years. This far future look was inspired by conversations Lamm had with Dr. Alan Kwan, an expert in computational genomics from Washington University, St Louis, Missouri. Kwan bases his speculation on phylogenomics, which determines the evolutionary relationships of life forms by comparing large datasets of gene sequences. Here are four possible facial configurations that humans may evolve through over the next hundred millennia. First off, we begin with a "normal" male and female of today.

Nickolay Lamm

View Caption+

20,000 A.D. -- Humans have a larger head and forehead that is subtly too large. The yellow ring around the eyes represents a communications lens -- the "Google Glass" of the future. The contact lenses relay hi-resolution visual information on an array of bioluminescent biobots (bacteria-based robots) and gives humans a removable and toggleable heads-up display and video communications. Hair is finer but grows denser because its role of containing heat loss from the enlarged head remains unchanged.

Nickolay Lamm

View Caption+

60,000 A.D. -- Head size increases to accommodate a larger brain. Pigmented skin is engineered to better deal with effects of radiation among space colonies. The genetic construction of thicker eyelids and more pronounced arch alleviates the effects of low or zero-gravity that has been found to disrupt and disorient the eyesight of today’s astronauts. Wearable technology continues but remains in subtle forms and limited permanence. Miniature bone-conduction devices implanted above the ear now work with the communications lenses.

Nickolay Lamm

View Caption+

100,000 A.D. -– Facial engineering is now heavily biased towards features that we find fundamentally appealing: strong, regal lines, straight nose, intense eyes, and placement of facial features that adhere to the golden ratio and left/right perfect symmetry. By today’s standards the eyes are now unnervingly large (but awfully big “windows to the soul”). Genetically boosted layer of cells behind the retina (the tapetum lucidum) enhance night vision and gives humans a cat-like glowing “green eye” look.

It turned out that this tiny tweak of just one letter in the genetic code didn't change the structure or function of the protein. Instead, it acted like a tiny thermostat, subtly ramping up or down the production of pigment in the hair follicle and nowhere else, Kingsley told Live Science.

From an evolutionary perspective, the range in human hair color is a puzzle, Hoekstra said.

Selection for different hair color could be a byproduct of other, more consequential genetic changes, she said. For instance, light-skin genes may have helped ancient humans survive in the low-light conditions of Northern Europe by enabling their skin to make more vitamin D, and light hair may have been an accidental consequence.

Sexual selection could also have allowed blond hair to spread.

"Lots of children have light hair — it's a color that's associated with youth," which may make blond hair more alluring, Kingsley said.

Or, given the relatively low prevalence of blond hair, the gene may have been subject to frequency dependent selection — meaning that golden tresses provided an edge in luring partners as long as they remained relatively uncommon.